Two aspiring and ambitious local writers have turned their love of writing into a career. They transcribed their work of how to succeed with e-books and now that book is successfully winning awards.

The non-fiction book, “$ell More Ebook$ - How to increase sales and Amazon rankings using Kindle Direct Publishing” by Laura Dobbins and Lucinda Sue Crosby, has recently won first place in the Dan Poynter's Global E-Book Contest in the Nonfiction/Marketing category.

Dobbins and Crosby are both former employees of The Daily Independent and winners of numerous state and local journalism awards.

The two have started Luckycinda Publishing, which offers writing contests and a myriad of tools and other ways to assist self-published ebook authors find their niche and succeed.

Crosby said she was impressed that she had no formal writing training or schooling, but in one year of writing, was able to win numerous awards. She said she is now getting paid to give talks and lectures on writing and publishing. One of her books has been downloaded at Amazon.com more than 30,000 times.

Crosby explained that she had been trying for years to publish what she had been writing on the side but kept beating her head against the wall of traditional publishing avenues.

Crosby explained there is a big push recently for ebook demand. She added that her book and publishing company offers marketing strategies and other tried and true techniques hard earned through trial and error.

Luckycinda also offers formatting and editing services for authors.

Crosby said Luckycinda can offer these sorts of services for approximately $1,500, compared to what a traditional publishing house would charge at $6,000 to $10,000.

Crosby explained there are several reasons for going electronic with books, the first thing being the cost of e-publishing, which is virtually nil. She also explained that with the new electronic formats, a book can be printed on demand.

For example, a writer may want 12 hard-copy books and can get just that many, compared to the traditional book publisher that would demand a minimum order of hundreds of books.

She explained that there is a bigger profit to be made by self-publishing e-books.

There is also effective marketing that can be learned in $ell More Ebook$. Crosby said that readers will discover there are ways to increase book sales and do independent book sales.

Crosby said she opens every one of her talks, “If I can do it, you can do it.”

For more information, go to luckycinda.com or look for the book and more by authors Crosby or Dobbins at Amazon.com.